


Who Knows?

by thevibrantruby



Category: West Side Story (1961), West Side Story (2020), West Side Story - Bernstein/Sondheim/Laurents
Genre: 1950s, 1960s, Best Friends, Drama, Dreams, Eventual Romance, F/M, Forbidden Love, Friendship, Gen, Inspired by West Side Story, M/M, Manhattan, Multi, New York City, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27771589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thevibrantruby/pseuds/thevibrantruby
Summary: My explanation on the reasons behind Tony's exit from the Jets and his longing for a different path in life.
Relationships: Maria/Tony (West Side Story), Riff/Tony (West Side Story)
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Tony gazes into the stinging heat of the Manhattan summer sky taking a long drag of the cigarette he’d been smoking for the past few minutes as Riff and the rest of the gang planned out the rest of the day. He inhales the smoke fluently, allowing it to travel through his lungs before exhaling and blowing the smoke into the air, the smoke dissipating in an invisible path. At one point, Tony felt as though he were on top of the world running the Jets with his old pal Riff. But for the past several months, he had found himself feeling out of place with this aspect of his life. 

“Tony, pal, didja hear that?” Riff voice pierced through Tony’s absent-minded trance. 

Tony decided not to pretend that he was listening. 

“No, sorry what was that?”

“We have a war council with The Rockets 10 o’clock Friday Night, the new gang from the Bronx,” Riff responded, taking one last puff of his cigarette before flinging it into the already litter-ridden streets of the Upper West Side. “They wanna take some territory here, so we gotta show ‘em who’s boss. You still in, right?” 

Tony tries to respond in a way that suggests that he is emotionally invested in The Jets budding conflict with The Rockets, but his tone and his body language gives him away. “Yeah, you got it .” 

Action scoffed and nudged Riff’s shoulder.

“No he don’t. He’s gonna bail on us like last time. Ya betta off makin’ me your right hand man,” Action offered, holding his hand out as if Riff had already agreed and they were sealing the deal with a handshake. 

Riff scoffed brushed Action’s hand away with a quick sweep of his hand as he exhaled another cloud of smoke. Even with the drastic changes in Tony’s behavior, Riff seemed to behave as though he didn’t notice a difference in Tony at all, and remained optimistic towards Tony’s involvement with the gang. “Hey, nobody said anything thinking about a new right-hand man alright? As far as I’m concerned, Tony will always be the right hand man, ain’t that right, Tony?”

‘Of course!” Tony tried his best to appear invested in the conversation, but it was becoming harder and harder.

The truth is, for the past few weeks, Tony had been having dreams of living a different life. A life that substituted the risk and recklessness of street life for something that held more promise. He and Riff founded The Jets almost five years ago now, at the onset of his adolescence, when Tony’s father left him and his mother for another woman and left them in financial distress, when Tony’s mother spiraled into a deep depression, when Tony grades plummeted and he often found himself in and out of the principal’s office, and when Riff moved in to escape the abuse of his abusive, alcoholic uncle. With all the hurt that he had experienced, he felt angry with the world, and felt that he had to prove himself to the world, to prove that he could stand on his own and fight for his place in the world. At the peak of Tony’s time with the Jets, he’d gain a reputation of not only being a fearless fighter, but also for being a loyal and trustworthy co-leader. In the past year, however, things had started to look up for Tony: his mom had been promoted to a managing position at her job, Tony had graduated from high school with nothing lower than a B+, and he’d started to rekindle his relationship with his father. For the first time since his young adulthood, Tony began to lose sight of the need to carry around anger and hate at the expense of others’ anymore. He had found some source of peace, some source of light in his life. However, with the newfound light that seeped its way into Tony’s life, he’d still felt a trail of darkness blocking his path to begin a new way of life. And after one rumble with a rival gang in the Upper West Side, he’d discovered what it was.

It was the gang.

As the co-leader (and co-founder) of the Jets, he’d force himself to live up to the bad-ass persona and teamed up with Riff to slug the Rockets into defeat, but as he and Riff, fought their way to Jets victory, he didn’t feel the addictive rush of thrill and adrenaline pumping through his veins the way he had once before. Instead, a dull numbness of longing for more light had made its presence painfully known in Tony’s soul. And he knew from that moment on that there had to be something more to life than violence, anger, and hate.

There was. All he would have to do was find it.

And that’s when the dreams began. Everytime he had the dream, he’d found himself in an almost identical setting. He’d find himself alone in a clear colored, hazy setting, looking around for something that clearly wasn’t there. Then, he’d see a figure-whether it was a human, an animal, or merely an object, he could never figure out-but the figure slowly makes his way towards him, and before he can reach it, he wakes up aimlessly reaching out into the darkness with a hint of sweat painting his forehead, mumbling the words of an old song he remembered from childhood as he gained consciousness from his slumber. 

Who knows?  
Who knows?  
There’s something due any day  
I will know right away   
As soon as it shows 

As frustrating as it was to wake up countless times with the same results, Tony took the dream as a sign of good luck. He knew that soon, there would be something to look forward to, something that might help him become a better person, something that might help him find the life that he was truly longing for. 

So when Riff asked him to join him and the rest of the gang at the dance at the community gym, after persistent begging from his best pal, Tony decided to take a chance. Maybe Riff is right after all, he thought to himself, maybe what-or who- I’m looking for will be at the dance tonight. 

Suddenly, with the warm wind of the June heat ringing in his ears and the numerous lines of t-shirts, pants, and skirts pinned to clotheslines dancing above him, all the words to that nameless, nostalgic tune came rushing back to him, and he sung from the depths of his soul.

Come on somethin’, come on in   
Don’t be shy, met a guy  
Pull up a chair  
The air is hummin’  
And something great is comin’  
It’s only just out of reach  
Down the block, on the beach  
Maybe tonight  
Maybe tonight  
Maybe tonight??…………..


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, Happy New Year!! :)
> 
> So although I originally intended for this to be a one-shot, I've decided to add a 2nd chapter to this story. This chapter (which is also in Tony's POV) describes his thoughts and feelings right as the first part of the play/film ends. If you guys like this series, please comment and/or leave kudos! Thank you all so much for supporting my writing, and I hope you enjoy :)

When Tony walks out of Doc’s at closing time, he feels as though he’s walking on air. He doesn’t notice the sound of cars gliding through the street or the sounds of loud jazz music reverberating through the cheap windows of Manhattan’s tenements, to him, at that moment, those things didn’t even exist-the only thing he could see was the girl who had changed his world just a few hours earlier-Maria. And the moment he’d set eyes on her-a petite, innocent looking girl with chestnut brown hair and sparkling brown eyes-and the only girl wearing a white dress-he knew that she was what he was looking for. Sure, his success in reducing the conflict between the Jets and Sharks from a rumble to a fist-fight lingered in the back of his mind as an after-thought, but the core of Tony’s thoughts and heart belonged to Maria. 

They met in the middle of what seemed like a frenzied dance competition between the two gangs, in a sea of hand clapping, feet stomping, leg kicking, body twirling, and skirt flying madness-eerily resembling the two gangs’ rumbling styles. The music had slowed once again to allow the party-goers a chance to find a new dance partner, and, after catching her gaze from the other side of the gym, he’d found him blindly walking towards her. As he walks towards the entrance of the building to his parent’s apartment, he thought about the way her skin felt as he reached his hands to caress her soft, smooth cheeks that felt like velvet when they’d first met at the dance and on the balcony of her bedroom, hiding away from her increasingly suspicious papa. He thought about how Maria appeared to be as enamored by him as he was her, and how he asked her if she had mistaken him for someone else, or was perhaps pretending to be interested as a joke to make sure that he wasn’t getting his hopes up. But, to his delight, she continued to gaze up at him with those probing brown eyes, and reassured him that they had never met before, and that she’d not yet learn how to joke. And as he walked up the stairs to his apartment, he recalled the way her soft, full lips pressed against his in a brief moment of sweet bliss before her brother, Bernado-the leader of the Sharks-angrily ripped them apart from each other. But, in this moment, Tony mind is on cloud nine, and the reality that Maria is the younger sister of the leader of the Sharks is merely a passing thought, because he had finally found what he’d been looking, what he’d left the Jets for, and maybe Maria’s sudden appearance in his life was a sign that it was time for him to love in a way that was disgraced by his friends and family. But as Tony and Maria made plans to meet at the bridal shop the next day, Tony uttered words that he’d never spoken to a woman before (well, besides his mother, of course). And when Maria stopped him to utter those same words back to him in her native tongue, he knew that he had found his purpose in life-to love and be loved. So, as Tony prepared for bed that night and stumbled into bed, he uttered those same words he’d learn from his new love that same night before drifiting off to sleep.

"Te Adoro, Maria."

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! :) 
> 
> Thank you to all who read this fic! Please share feedback and/or let me know if you would like more WSS fanfiction in the future! The idea for this piece just popped up in my head a few weeks ago so I decided to write a one-shot! I adore the WSS franchise and can't wait for the new film version to be released next year!! I would love to hear you guys' feedback! If you enjoyed this one-shot, please send kudos! 
> 
> Thank for your support! :)
> 
> -VibrantRuby


End file.
